Our View: How do we save Arizona’s water? With the Web

Editorial: A team from Tucson debuts its Beyond the Mirage project tonight to raise awareness about our water challenges.

“Thirty years from now ... if we’re still a viable state, it will be because of the solutions we come up with today,” says Cody Sheehy, who created the idea for Beyond the Mirage.(Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic)

One day the Great Recession and its long, sputtering aftermath will be behind us, and we’ll once again enjoy the animal spirits of a thriving national and state economy.

When that day comes, when the cranes reemerge and stand like redwoods across metro Phoenix, we will get back to one of our cherished traditions in this desert Valley — striving to be great.

We will need the infrastructure to keep it going. And no infrastructure is as basic to the task as water. It is nectar to our arid metropolis - the life force that gives us a tomorrow.

Arizona and the West have spent the last decade gradually waking up to the fact that we are facing an extraordinary drought that could turn into the kinds of mega-droughts that have visited this region and hung around for 50 years or more.

That means we need to plan now. We have ample water in metro Phoenix, but this is not a tomorrow problem. It’s a today problem. National media are beginning to contemplate whether desert cities are even sustainable. If that becomes conventional wisdom, it could discourage investment in our metro area.

Already Valley Realtors report that out-of-state clients are beginning to ask the water question.

It was in this climate that three Valley institutions, the Arizona Community Foundation, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University and Republic Media (The Arizona Republic, azcentral.com and La Voz) teamed up to raise awareness about our water dilemma.

We created The New Arizona Prize, a contest to promote solutions to water supply and other great challenges facing this state. “Beyond the Mirage” a team of media specialists from the University of Arizona and Arizona Public Media won the first prize — the $100,000 Water Consciousness Challenge.

The Tucson group was selected from among 21 teams that entered their best digital strategies for raising Arizonans’ consciousness about our water future. The prize money helped them develop their interactive web experience, a one-hour documentary and a classroom educational component currently in development.

What to expect tonight

Tonight at Desert Botanical Garden they will launch their interactive web experience before an audience of some 200 community leaders, philanthropists and water experts, who will be among the first to experience their new online platform at kiosks at the event.

The Beyond the Mirage project was designed to inform Arizonans on pressing water issues through the new media platforms that have become more common to our lives. The team relies heavily on short-form video to deliver serious and superbly produced messages about water supply.

“When we issued the challenge to raise the public's consciousness of Arizona's water future, Beyond the Mirage emerged as the perfect example of what could be accomplished,” said Steve Seleznow, president & CEO of the Arizona Community Foundation. “The state-of-the-art tools on their website are innovatively designed to engage every Arizonan, from students and families to people in the business sector and government service. We’re proud to celebrate the launch of the Beyond the Mirage website.”

At the conclusion of tonight’s program, the Arizona Community Foundation will announce details of the next challenge to be offered under The New Arizona Prize. Teams that include business leaders, local government or elected officials, leading companies and agricultural businesses, and citizen leaders from across Arizona will compete for an even larger prize.

Cody Sheehy, who came up with the idea for Beyond the Mirage, told The Republic’s Caitlin McGlade, "Thirty years from now, we're going to look back and if we're still a viable state, it will be because of the solutions we come up with today. It's really a slow-motion train wreck that you have to be 30 years ahead on."

The New Arizona Prize was developed to tap into more of the creative energy and talent in this state to solve our problems. We all live in this state and bear the responsibility of making it better.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Hoover Dam and Lake Mead photographed from the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. A high-water mark or "bathtub ring" is visible on the shoreline. The lake was down record levels earlier this summer but has recovered a bit, averting a shortage for 2016.
Mark Henle/The Republic

Emblematic of the Southwest's water crisis: A road cutting across the lake bottom would once have been entirely underwater at Echo Bay in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada. Water levels sank to record lows this year, although they have recovered a bit. in recent months.
Mark Henle/The Republic

Historic low levels in Lake Mead left resort areas like the Echo Bay Marina in Nevada abandoned. The marina closed because the concessionaire chose not to renew its contract due to declining revenues.
Mark Henle/The Republic

The Desert Princess, a three-level paddle-wheeler, passes Rock Island while leaving Hemenway Harbor on it mid-day sightseeing cruse. A high-water mark or "bathtub ring" is visible on the shoreline; feet and November, reached record low levels this summer but has rebounded recently.
Mark Henle/The Republic

Robert Kern, a Waster Water Investigator for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, documents a watering restriction violation in a west-central Las Vegas neighborhood. Las Vegas residents are only allowed to water on assigned days,
Mark Henle/The Republic

Troy Fuit works on a home under construction in the Kayenta development, last November in Ivins, Utah. Growing communities have increased their thirst for water, creating tensions in the region.
Mark Henle/The Republic

Kyle Elmer (left) and Clay Baker cross U.S. 6/U.S. 50 on the Utah-Nevada border while moving 130 head of cattle from Hoover Place north to the Flats on Baker Ranch near Baker, Nev. Ranchers are struggling as their water is siphoned off to the cities.
Mark Henle/The Republic

Dean Baker drains a water line at Baker Ranch, near Baker, Nev., to keep it from freezing. "We know the water isn't here," said Dean Baker, Tom's father and the one who refused to sell when the Southwest Nevada Water Authority wanted their ranch. "I've spent my whole life trying to (drill) wells."
Mark Henle/The Republic

Tom Baker, son of Dean Baker, works in his office at Baker Ranch om Baker, Nevada. The Bakers say they find themselves battling cities for limited water supply. "To think you're going to take all the water out of the ground (to build) a few more blocks in Las Vegas," he said
Mark Henle/The Republic